How has COVID-19 affected the teleradiology service domain?

Teleradiology comes under the umbrella of telehealthcare. The radiology experts interpret images and scans of the patients and communicate with the physicians. Today, even the world of health is digitized, and hence it allows this domain to work from remote locations, which helps in reducing the risk of the radiologists contracting or spreading the COVID-19 virus. The outbreak of this deadly virus has rapidly increased the need for teleradiology services. This is because of the rapid increase in various diseases as a side-effect of the virus attack. The several cloud-options and benefits offered by teleradiology have made it safe and efficient to availing of these services.

Social-distancing and other similar norms have given rise to virtual consultations, and the success of a remote teleradiology department has added an additional dimension to its perks. The success, effectiveness, and practicality have made it extremely beneficial and likely to be used more widely in the future.

The growth trajectory of the need of the teleradiology service domain will continue to rise and will only improve its outcomes. The spread of the COVID-19 virus has only improved this domain’s quality of work, flexibility to work from home and scalability. Teleradiology for the cases of this pandemic can benefit us in three ways:

• By promoting structured reporting, including quantification of pulmonary changes.
• If hotspots arise in the future, teleradiology could share their workload and diagnostic studies and analysis with radiology departments in less affected areas.
• By immediately studying cases from many regions.